Trump slams Germany’s US trade surplus as ‘bad’
While in Brussels Thursday US President Donald Trump told European leaders that Germany was being unfair with its trade arrangements, German media reported on Thursday.
“The Germans are bad, very bad,” Trump was quoted as saying by respected news weekly “Der Spiegel”.
“Look at the millions of cars they sell in the US. Terrible! We’ll stop that,” Trump said, according to sources inside who spoke with the magazine.
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Similar complaints against Germany’s trade surplus at the Brussels meeting were reported by Bavarian daily “Sueddeutsche Zeitung”.
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NATO, Meet Donald Trump | The Atlantic |
So NATO–the 28-member, 68-year-old military alliance that accounts for billions of dollars in defense spending; the definition of a staid, bureaucratic international institution–joins the list of entities forced to face the conundrum of how to deal with Donald Trump. The Trump-NATO confusion is a sign of how consequential Trump’s open suspicion of existing U.S. alliances and commitments has been on the world stage.
The NATO summit this week has reportedly been carefully tailored to him. The agenda is being confined to counterterrorism and burden-sharing — two issues that have been the focal point of Trump’s antipathy toward the alliance. Not on the official agenda: Russia, a NATO spokesperson told BuzzFeed News. Alliance leaders were reportedly told to keep their remarks short during the group dinner to accommodate Trump’s attention span.
NATO allies bear an old debt burden
On the burden-sharing front, Trump has repeatedly badgered other members of the alliance to boost defense spending. And he has taken credit for their doing so: “based on our very strong and frank discussions, they are beginning to do just that,” he said in his first speech to a joint session of Congress after being inaugurated.
Defense Secretary James Mattis and Vice President Mike Pence have both promised to honor Article 5. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters traveling on Air Force One from Rome to Brussels: “Of course we support Article 5. The only time Article 5 has been invoked was in 9/11,” after which NATO joined the American-led war in Afghanistan.
But up until now, Trump himself has not explicitly made that commitment. NATO leadership has finessed the issue; NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg argued that Trump had essentially endorsed Article 5 in a press conference on Thursday.
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Trump at NATO: The Bull in a China Shop >> more
[Update-1] The Bull in a China Shop | DW – Opinion |
Seeing the western military alliance NATO as a debt collector for defense spending? US President Donald Trump doesn’t seem to get it, says DW’s Brussels correspondent Bernd Riegert.
At the NATO summit in Brussels, US President Donald Trump acted like a diplomatic bully. He arrived late, then shoved the Montenegrin prime minister aside to ensure his place in the front row. He turned what was planned as a short ceremonial address into a lengthy tirade against allies.
Trump demanded imaginary money from NATO members to which he is not entitled. His speech was full of provocations and profanities. Many heads of state and governmental leaders were shocked. Even the American NATO delegation was not expecting that Trump would stage one of his feared speeches, where he goes off on his own tangent.
America first? No, Trump first!
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